Religious satire

Religious satire has been criticised and at times censored to avoid offence, for example the film Life of Brian was initially banned in Ireland, Norway, some states of the US, and some towns and councils of the United Kingdom.

The film Life of Brian was initially banned in Ireland, Norway, some states of the US, and some towns and councils of the United Kingdom.

Critics of the original version of the Bill (such as comedian Rowan Atkinson) feared that satirists could be prosecuted, but an amendment by the House of Lords making it clear that this was not the case was passed – by just one vote.

Magdalen in the SubGenius hierarchy, lost custody and contact with her son after a district court judge took offense at her participation in the Church's X-Day festival.

Aristophanes, always livid and nearly scandalous in his religious, political, and sexual references...[Chapple's book Soviet satire of the twenties]...classifying the very topics his satirists satirized: housing, food, and fuel supplies, poverty, inflation, "hooliganism", public services, religion, stereotypes of nationals (the Englishman, German, &c), &c. Yet the truth of the matter is that no satirist worth his salt (Petronius, Chaucer, Rabelais, Swift, Leskov, Grass) ever avoids man's habits and living standards, or scants those delicate desiderata: religion, politics, and sex.

From a series of woodcuts (1545) usually referred to as the Papstspotbilder or Papstspottbilder in German or Depictions of the Papacy in English, [ 1 ] by Lucas Cranach , commissioned by Martin Luther . [ 2 ] Title: Kissing the Pope's Feet. [ 3 ] German peasants respond to a papal bull of Pope Paul III . Caption reads: "Don't frighten us Pope, with your ban, and don't be such a furious man. Otherwise we shall turn around and show you our rears." [ 4 ] [ 5 ]
American comedian George Carlin was well known for his routines satirizing religion.
Bill Maher , satirist behind the film Religulous
Caricature of the Crimean Tatar educator and intellectual Ismail Gasprinsky (on the right), leader of the Jadid movement , depicted holding the newspaper Terjuman ("The Translator") and the textbook Khoja-i-Sübyan ("The Teacher of Children") in his hand. Two men, respectively Tatar and Azerbaijani Muslim clerics , are threatening him with takfīr and sharīʿah decrees (on the left). From the satirical magazine Molla Nasreddin , N. 17, 28 April 1908, Tbilisi (illustrator: Oskar Schmerling ).
Frontispiece of the 1753 edition of Voltaire 's play Le fanatisme, ou Mahomet le Prophète